YESTERDAY'S TOWNS

HOWDY, MY NAME IS BILL STRONG, I'LL BE YOUR "24 HOUR MAN", ROUTING YOU INTO THE PAST TO SEE WHAT THE CIRCUS WAS IN DAYS GONE BY. IF YOU'RE LIKE ME, AND MISS WHAT IT USED TO BE, THEN COME ON ALONG AS WE GO DOWN THE ROAD FOLLOWING THE ARROWS BACKWARDS, TO "YESTERDAY'S TOWNS"!
IF YOU HAVE CIRCUS RELATED PICTURES YOU WOULD LIKE POSTED, SEND THEM TO,,,,yesterday1@verizon.net,,,,AND WE WILL TRY TO FIT THEM IN. "24 HOUR MAN" WILL HAVE THE FINAL DECISION ON POSTING.

About Me

Three years at CWM made me a real traditionalist, and I keep remembering Bob Parkinson saying, "I want the people to see what the circus used to be, not what it is today. That's what this site is about!

Monday, April 30, 2007

DAVE HALE'S 5-H RANCH-MAY, 1986

This starts with a familiar story, booking the whole season, then being told on payday in one town that you have a month off, it would have been too much to ask for them to have told you the truth when you asked two months earlier if that was going to happen.

Since Joanne was laying over in Cape Girardo,MO, at Dave Hale's 5-H Ranch and we were fortunate enough to be invited to stay there as well. We had never met Dave and had no idea what a treat we were in for, what great hospitality, he immediately made room for our horses in his barn, and welcomed us like family.

Of course icing on the cake was a couple other visitors who were there at the time.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

FROM NATASHA GERSON, THE NETHERLANDS #1

Natasha is in search of information on two subjects & thought some of you bloggers might be able to help.

QUEST #1

MOTHER RIALTO'S GUEST HOUSE, GREENWOOD LAKE,NYThe interesting thing about this picture, this guesthouse belonged to Mary Prols(?) the grandmother of the world famous Tramp Clown, Joe Jackson Jr., he and his father before him were known for their Comedy Break-Away Bicycle Act. Mother Rialto's was in Greenwood Lake New York, and was where a lot of Euro artists stayed in the thirties and forties. I would like to know more about it and maybe it helps if you could put it on your blog!!!!

JOE JACKSON JR.Note that his Perm. Add. is Greenwood Lake NY. You can watch a two part video of Joe Jackson Jr's act, posted on Pat Cashin's CLOWN ALLEY.NET, Feb. 09/2007.

JOE JACKSON SR.Joe Jackson Sr. (1873 – 1942) was born as Joseph Francis Jiranek in Vienna, Austria. He was Austrian cycling champion, and a member of a world champion bicycle polo team before he became an entertainer. He started with a serious bike riding act, and then developed it into a comedy break. Preferring intimate settings, Jackson worked almost exclusively in Vaudeville and European one-ring circuses. His act took him to England, the European Continent, Russia, Siberia, Turkey, and most of the United States. He encouraged his son to take over the act and it was performed by either father or son for over 100 years. Following a performance at New York's Roxy Theater, he took several curtain calls, and then died in the wings. He was inducted into the International Clown Hall of Fame in 1994.

FROM NATASHA GERSON, THE NETHERLANDS #2

QUEST #2 I do have another question on the off chance that some one might be able to point me in the right direction. It's a remote chance because no-one in years has been able to give me more info, but you never know... It's a bit from before your time also but the lady might have been performing in the fifties still.

I'm looking to what happened to one Harieta Van de Velde who worked as an equestrian in the late thirties at least and onward ?? for Cole circus as Miss Harietta or Miss Harieta. She married and I never knew her married name.

She was the sister of Albert Van de velde, musician, and Elli Vandevelde, from Berlin, both of the Van de velde company, Elli was known for a Unus type one finger stand on a bottle. Albert with his wife Kate and Elli with husband Edy (Hartenberger) immigrated to Chicago in the fifties. They were friends to the Bradna family also (Ella, Joanne, Joseph, Willy etc). Harieta was already in the US for a long time before that but I know very little of her, and would very much like to know what happened to her. If anyone has a remote inkling who I'm talking about, I'd very much like to hear. Thank You Very Much, Natasha Gerson

Monday, April 23, 2007

RINGLING BROTHERS CIRCUS MONUMENT, WAHPETON ND

Years ago before Interstate Highways, I used to notice little cast iron signs along the roadways and started photographing them with the idea of doing a book about them, and calling it "LITTLE BITs of HISTORY". Well, the idea & the photos got lost somewhere along the way, and the following reminded me of it.

Joanne sent me a tourism flyer with this "little bit" of circus history, many of you may know the story, like me there are probably many of you who do not.

RIVERSIDE CEMETERY WAHPETON NDThe weather was bad on the morning of June 10, 1897; rainy,with thunderstorms approaching. The Ringling Brother's Circus was setting up for a show that evening in Wahpeton. As circus workers raised the tent, a clap of thunder and bolt of lightning pierced the sky, killing two men and injuring others. The two men Charles Smith and Charles Walters, were buried in a pauper's cemetery just south of town. The monument that marks the graves of Smith and Walters is an exact replica of the stricken center pole, right down to rope, pulleys, & chain used to raise the big top. A third man died from his injuries a year later.

THE DAREDEVILS: #2

LEONATI, THE SPIRAL ASCENTIONISTOne of the earliest bicycle thrill acts was performed by Leonati, a Frenchman billed on the Forepaugh show in 1883 as the “Spiral Ascensionist”. On a high wheeler,(it was before the day of the pneumatic safety bike), Leonati rode to a 50-foot high platform and then descended to the ground.

THE DAREDEVILS: #4

When the safety bicycle was introduced in the nineties audiences were treated to a number of neck-risking acts

STARR, THE SHOOTING STARThe simplest was the straightaway speed act, as performed by Starr on the Forepaugh-Sells show in 1903. Starr raced down a ladder with enough speed to take him all the way around the hippodrome track.

MINTINGMinting, the ‘Australian Marvel” rode a unicycle on a 20-inch wide track to a height of 60-feet, & then rode back down. He was by Forepaugh-Sells in 1902 as the “Only Unicycle Ascensionist in the World”.

THE DAREDEVILS: #5

PRODIGIOUS PORTHOSThe picture above shows “Prodigious Porthos” in his 50-foot flight,( 5-feet shorter than Mlle. D’Zizi, & without the elephants), from one ramp to another. This was on Forepaugh-Sells in 1904.

DIAVOLO LOOP THE LOOPMore sensational was the Loop the Loop as performed by Diavlo, also in 1904, he was one of the first to do this dangerous stunt, speeding down a long incline into a 360 degree Loop at great speed. Casualties were high among Loop the Loopers.

THE DAREDEVILS: #6

DESPERADO'SGerman acrobat Ernest Gadbin performed for Barnum and Bailey just prior to World War I & was perhaps the greatest of all the Daredevils. Billed as Desperado, he did a swan dive from an 80 foot high platform landing on his chest at a speed said to be more than 100 feet per second, on a highly polished inclined wooden ramp that was also sprinkled with a thin layer of corn meal. The ramp was turned up at both ends and he would skid down one end, up the other, fly through the air, and land in a net.

THE DAREDEVILS: #7

A personal observation before the description of the final attraction in this series. This is without a doubt the most frightening thing I have ever seen. I will leave this description to the author. ISABELLA BUTLER AND, L'AUTO BOLIDE, THE DIP OF DEATHI think I speak for everyone interested in the history of our great world of Circus in thanking John & Alice Durant, for this fabulous chapter from a great book, "The Pictorial History of the American Circus"

MEMORIES #4 PHIL McDONALD

Memories #5

BACK STAGEThis is back stage at Al Dobritch's ill-fated Batman Circus in Detroit, 1967(?). L to R are Dougie Ashton, Bill Strong, & Merle Cook, all looking at the camera. Incidently the young lady I believe is one of the Stebbing girls.